Race Restrictive Covenants in Property Deeds, Hartford area, 1940s

Click a colored rectangle to view racial restrictions, typically against residents “other than the Caucasian race,” that some housing developers wrote into property deeds in the Hartford region. In 1921, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the right of private property owners to insert these restrictions, but later ruled in the 1948 Shelley v Kraemer case that they were no longer enforceable by governmental authority. Yet restrictive language still exists in the legal property records today. To date, we have found racial covenants for a handful of housing developments in West Hartford. Have you seen or heard about other restrictions, in other towns?

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